Email this article to a friend

Using IT to tackle improper payments

Wednesday - 4/6/2011, 1:11pm EDT

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are exploring how they can use some of the technology used by credit card companies to cut down on fraud, by stopping improper payments before they happen. The agency plans to use money from the Small Business Jobs bill to test out technology known as predictive modeling. Banks use it to detect transactions that don't mesh up with a card holder's typical spending patterns. CMS thinks it might be a way to stop improper payments beforehand - rather than chasing down fraud after it's already happened.